Thank you, fellow preservationist! Thanks to your generosity, we have officially declared victory on our most recent acquisition at Champion Hill! This 319-acre property runs along the historic Middle Road, traversed by Jackson Creek, and brings us to a total 795 acres saved at this key Mississippi battlefield.

As renowned British military historian J.F.C. Fuller wrote: “The drums of Champion’s Hill sounded the doom of Richmond.” Champion Hill battlefield is the site of the largest, bloodiest, and most consequential action of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. The 1863 Union victory at Champion Hill was instrumental in forcing the Confederate Army into a doomed position inside the entrenched fortress of Vicksburg.

The Trust aims to transfer this property to the National Park Service for stewardship and interpretation as part of the Vicksburg National Military Park as soon as possible. Generations to come can visit and learn from this protected land!

William C. Davis: Retired in 2013 as Professor of History and Executive Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech University. He is the author or editor of more than 60 books on the Civil War and Southern history, and consultant and commentator for A&E’s “Civil War Journal,” and several other television and film productions.

Dr. Brian S. Wills: Director of the Center for the Civil War Era at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Wills is a nationally recognized Civil War historian and author of books on Civil War topics.

Thomas Cartwright: Is a leading authority and author on the Battle of Franklin who conducted tours of Western Theater battlefields for 20 years. Appeared on many TV shows and is a frequent CWRT speaker.

Jim Stanbery: Professor of Political Science and History at Los Angeles Harbor College, and speaker at the West Coast Civil War Conference for more than twenty years. Is a frequent CWRT speaker.

Theodore Savas: Is an attorney, adjunct college instructor, award-winning author, Partner and Managing Director of Savas Beatie LLC. He specializes in military history and the American Civil War.

Ron Perisho: A member of the Sacramento CWRT and Center for Civil War Photography (CCWP), CoEditor of “Gettysburg in 3-D,” and a Soils Engineer who has collected Civil War Photography for 30 years.

Dana Lombardy on “Sex… and Spies, Oh, My!”

Wherever thousands of men have gathered to fight wars throughout history, romance—and prostitution—have followed. “They didn’t want to die virgins” was a major concern of many soldiers and affected morale in nearly every army that fought in the Great War. In addition, exotic dancers and courtesans such as Mata Hari had relationships with high-ranking military officers and politicians—and in her case it led to being tried and executed as a spy. What else will be revealed?

Dana Lombardy

Dana Lombardy is Publisher of World War One Illustrated magazine for the World War One Historical Association. He was an Associate Online Editor for Armchair General magazine and now does research, writing and design through his Lombardy Studios. Dana is recognized for his nearly twenty television appearances, including multiple episodes of The History Channel’s “Tales of the Gun” series. He has contributed as an editor, cartographer, graphic artist, and designer on many books, games and magazines, was Publisher of Napoleon Journal from 1996-2000.

Walter Day on “The Battle of Perryville, The Invasion of Kentucky”

Why was Kentucky important in the Civil War?

Control of strategic rivers (the Ohio in particular)

Source of manpower for armies

Food

Perryville was a relatively large battle for its time in the Civil War. Federals numbered about 55,000 men (22,000 engaged) under US General Don Carlos Buell. Confederates fielded some 17,000 men under CSA General Braxton Bragg.

We are fortunate to have an excellent video of this re-enacted battle*, with a Bonus Feature of Ed Bearss (pronounced “bars”), former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, describing this battle in great detail. If you’ve never seen Ed, come and enjoy this! He’s 94 now and only recently stopped leading battlefield tours. He’s a one of a kind historian whose passion has been to learn and tell anyone who’s interested incredible details of every battle fought in the US, as well as World War battles in which the US fought. Until very recently, he led many tours every year around those fields, and tour groups often had to jog to keep up with him.

*The video, “Battle of Perryville, the Invasion of Kentucky”, is provided by Wide Awake Films, LLC.

Walter Day is the Peninsula Civil War Roundtable Program Chairman. He has been a student of Civil War history since he was a teenager. He has visited most of the battlefields where his great grandfather’s unit, the Wilcox Brigade, 8th Alabama Infantry, CSA, fought. He is a retired Electrical Engineer and U.S. Naval officer. He has followed Ed Bearss around on tours of at least 8 Civil War battlefields, as well as the WWII Normandy battlefield.

Howard Jones on “John Paul Jones, An American Hero”

Howard’s presentation was about the heroics of John Paul Jones who took the fight for American independence to the British Isles during the Revolutionary War. The epic battle between the American ship, Bonhomme Richard, and the British ship, Serapis, is legendary in naval history. His ultimate victory became the basis for the creation of a United States Naval Academy and a world-power American Navy.

Howard is a Marine Corps Veteran and a graduate of the University of Oregon. He is the immediate Past Commander General of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars. He is a former President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. In addition, he served for 12 years as the Public Member of San Mateo County’s Local Agency Formation Committee, (or, LAFCo). Howard frequently gives presentations about American history to elementary grade school children and heritage groups such as the DAR, SAR and the UDC.

Ruthanne Lum McCunn on “Hidden History: Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Civil War”

In this vividly illustrated talk, Ruthanne Lum McCunn brings to life the amazing stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Confederate and Union Navies and Armies, including that of Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way), the veteran whose life she reclaimed in Chinese Yankee. Discussing the subsequent battle of Chinese veterans for citizenship, she also explores an important and virtually unknown chapter in America’s rocky yet persistent struggle towards a more perfect Union.

Ruthanne Lum McCunn is a writer of Chinese and Scottish descent whose award-winning work has been translated into eleven languages, published in twenty-two countries, and adapted for the stage and film. She is most recently the author of Chinese Yankee, the true story of Thomas Sylvanus.

David Ainsworth on “SS Jeremiah O’Brien—Then and Now”

David’s talk covered the geopolitical basis for the Merchant Navy Liberty Ship building during WWII, its peculiar origins, its astonishing achievements, and the distinguished deployment of the ship itself in the Normandy invasion and elsewhere. Finally, he will cover its return to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlord in 1994 and the way in which the old ship—still operating—contributes to the community today.

David Ainsworth graduated from the University of Kansas and subsequently served as an infantry and embarkation officer in the U. S. Marine Corps. He attended Golden Gate Law school in San Francisco and practiced maritime law for thirty five years, first for Matson Lines and then American President Lines, where he served as Vice President and General Counsel. He has also been of counsel to a Washington DC law firm and presently consults for a San Francisco based shipping company. He has authored two novels, In Extremis and The Chasm, both political suspense stories (visit www.davidainsworthbooks.com for details) and is a member of the volunteer crew of the SS Jeremiah O’Brien (docent and Chairman of the Speaker’s Bureau.) He resides in the Napa Valley and enjoys making wine each fall for his house label, Admiralty Cellars.

Gene Paleno on “The Porter Conspiracy”

Gene has written a well-researched non-fiction historical novel about a relatively unknown Civil War Major General. Although innocent, Fitz John Porter was accused of losing a crucial battle and tried and convicted for cowardice and disobedience. This true story reveals the political false reasons for his court martial.

The tale depicts the Second Battle of Manassas in grim, eye-witness accounts of the fighting and dying during three days in August 1862. President Abraham Lincoln’s unhappy part in the tragedy is woven together with the events of that period like threads in a bloody tapestry to create the changes that shaped and changed America for all time.

Gene Paleno has farmed in Lake County for nearly fifty years and been writing even longer. During most of the good part of a century of life Gene has had more occupations and professions than you can count on both hands. He writes to entertain. Gene has written fifteen full-length novels and several collections of stories on a wide range of subjects, and a weekly newspaper column of the animals and people he’s met while he’s farmed…to novels about the Civil War, Lake County history, and Adult science fiction and fantasy.

Asked, “Why do you write?” his reply was, “Because I must. Writing is like breathing. It is the reason I wake each day glad to be alive.” “Besides,” he adds, “Seeing my stories in print and knowing people enjoy reading them is like having Apple Pie… and I love Apple Pie.”

Join us at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City, 11:30 on Tuesday, January 17. See the MEETING INFO menu item for specific times and directions. This month’s topic is

Jim Rhetta on “Newspapers and Open Source Intelligence in the Civil War”

The Civil War is called the “first modern war” due to the first use of many new and modern technologies. Often overlooked is the fact that it was also the first war that newspapers covered capable of reporting events in less than 12 hours. With the majority of the population literate, this capability produced a new and significant impact on both war efforts that politicians on both sides had not experienced before and were unprepared for. In addition, newspapers frequently printed information of high and timely military value, an action that never occurred before, which enraged generals on both sides. This information is now known as Open Source Intelligence, can be of high value, and is commonly used by all participants in current global conflicts.